Zune

ARTICLES ABOUT ZUNE BY DATE - PAGE 2

If Obama's really an iPod guy, well, there had to be a reason he was caught red-handed with a Zune. Right? We decided to let our Twitter followers come up with a few. Join RedEye's playlist at twitter.com/redeyechicago. @egspoony Maybe because Obama is about change? @danno1227 He's probably waiting for the Presidential engraving on his iPod. @purplepopple Because Obama is an average joe and makes no pretentions. Plus YAY! Music sharing with Hillary! @dkmann he's going to ask the Gates foundation to bail out Detroit @GrantGannon Because he can't afford Apple's high priced products?

Here's what we know about President-elect Obama and gadgets: He loves his BlackBerry. He's a Mac guy, not a PC. He was seen working out with a Zune. Wait ... a Zune? Not an iPod? Is it too late for a recount? Obama's alleged choice of digital music player has sparked so much buzz in the techie blogosphere that all the incoming traffic briefly crashed the Web site of the Philadelphia paper that broke the story. "We didn't anticipate this kind of attention," said Drew Lazor, the online editor for citypaper.

Here's what we know about President-elect Barack Obama and gadgets: He loves his BlackBerry. He's a Mac, not a PC. He was seen working out with a Zune. Wait ... a Zune? Not an iPod? Is it too late for a recount? Obama's alleged choice of digital music player has sparked so much buzz in the techie blogosphere that all the incoming traffic briefly crashed the Web site of the Philadelphia weekly newspaper that broke the story. "We didn't anticipate this kind of attention," said Drew Lazor, the online editor for citypaper.

A significant software upgrade for Microsoft's Zune music player will be available next week. It will not garner the attention of Apple's recent iPod news, but the changes are noteworthy if you want a new portable music option. Physically, the Zune looks the same. But internally, the changes are significant. The Zune is a fine player if you take the traditional approach -- load your CD collection onto the player or buy digital music online -- but if you really like music discovery, Microsoft's subscription plan is a great bonus.

This might be hard for some people to fathom, but there are digital music players made by other companies beside Apple. But before you think I'm about to write some type of heresy -- the iPod is not the best? -- here's the point: The iPod has keen competition, if you look. There can be good reasons for not picking an iPod. One, other players often include an FM radio; iPods do not. Two, the following devices worked easily on Microsoft Windows, as does the iPod, and each found and organized the music files I have scattered about the Hewlett-Packard laptop I used for this review.

Microsoft, chasing the speeding iPod train, will introduce a new lineup of its Zune hand-held music and video players in November. Analysts said the new Zunes, which Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates unveiled to reporters in Redmond, Wash., on Tuesday, might help the company hold onto its sliver of the market and perhaps gain ground against fledgling entrants. But Microsoft wasn't given much chance of taking customers from Apple. "They're not going to gain against Apple because there is nothing really innovative about what they're doing," said Van Baker, a vice president at Gartner Group.

Microsoft Corp.'s Zune took second place in the U.S. digital music-player market in its first week on sale, passing SanDisk Corp.'s Sansa, market researcher NPD Group Inc. said Wednesday. Zune captured 9 percent of the market in the week ended Nov. 18, NPD said. Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod remained the leader, with a 63 percent share when measured by units sold. Microsoft started selling its first music player on Nov. 14 to capture a share of the $4 billion U.S. market dominated by Apple.

Today's tune is Zune, and it's being written none too soon. It was nearly two weeks ago when Microsoft Corp.'s new music, movie and photo player named Zune fulfilled widespread predictions that it was going to debut with a thud. Let me say first that my take on this milestone event in Windows history comes amid a bit of heat. I guess I've been persona non grata at the Zune side of Microsoft for the past few weeks after I questioned the ethics of the company's effort to immolate iPod by creating in Zune a virtual carbon copy of both Apple's world-beater music player and the exclusive online store where iPod owners shop for new music.

Lupe Fiasco sings to an audience including Theodora Skolnik (left) during an outdoor concert Monday for the launch of Microsoft's Zune music player. The concert in Pioneer Court south of Tribune Tower on North Michigan Avenue was one of six events held in various cities. The Zune, which debuts Tuesday, will sell for $249.99 and marks an attempt by Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp. to challenge Apple Computer Inc.'s popular iPod devices and iTunes Music Store. Zune is a music and entertainment platform that includes a 30 gigabyte media player and the Zune Marketplace music service.

Microsoft agreed to give Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group a cut of sales from the Zune music player to gain the record label's backing for its bid to take market share from Apple's iPod. Without the deal signed Wednesday, Microsoft wouldn't have been able to sell Universal's music, which includes artists such as Kanye West and U2, in the Zune online store. Similar offers have been made to other major labels and some independent record companies, said Zune marketing general manager Chris Stephenson.